Snacking is Good for Kids -- Grazing is Not

By Julia Moravcsik, PhD, author of Teach Your Child to Love Healthy Food

Recent research has found that a big cause of overeating in adults is eating too often.

But what is behind adults eating too often?  It's a relaxed attitude towards regular mealtimes.  It's not necessarily bad to schedule a snack or two between meals.  What's dangerous is to eat when you feel like it. It's dangerous when adults learn to eat whenever they're bored, lonely, frustrated, happy, or when they see a plate of doughnuts at work.

There is a certain freedom in knowing that there is a time for food and a time to stop thinking about food.  When it's time for a meal or snack, you can focus on the food.  When it's time to do other activities, thoughts of food don't interfere with these activities.

What is Grazing?

Although people have defined grazing in many ways, I'm going to use the word "grazing" to mean eating whenever you feel like it.

Grazing Starts in Childhood

Grazing habits start in childhood.  The French, who have much lower levels of obesity, have strict times for eating, which they take very seriously.  They don't eat "when they feel like it."  They eat at mealtimes.  And they really enjoy their food, partly because they are hungry for it.  Children in France grow up knowing that food is served at certain times of the day.

How to Prevent Grazing

Here are some ways to help prevent your child from becoming an adult who has to continually struggle with the desire to eat.

1) Don't Give Your Child Food If He Complains That He's Hungry.  Every child (and adult) should be hungry at times during the day.  Let hunger build up before meals.  Hunger is natural, and teaching a child to be afraid of the hunger sensation by scrambling to give him food will teach him to be an overeater.  If you don't feed your child when he asks, he'll soon become distracted with toys or friends and forget his hunger until dinnertime. If a meal is delayed and you feel like your child needs a little food, give him some raw vegetables. They will fill him up without spoiling his appetite. But make snacks like this a rare occurrence.

2) Have Regular Meals and Snacks at Regular Times.  Decide what times work for your family and stick with them.  If your child expects breakfast around 7:00, a snack at 10:00, lunch at 12:30, a snack at 3:00, and dinner at 5:00, that's when his stomach will send him hunger signals. 


3) Don't Let Your Child Forage for Food in the Kitchen.  You should be the one to give your child food.  It is easy for a parents to simply let their children graze in the kitchen.  But this will lead to overeating, and to eating unnutritious food.  Forbidding your child to get food for himself isn't as strict as it seems.  After all, if your spouse grabbed a bowlful of ice cream a half hour before dinner, just because he or she happened to be hungry, you would be justifiably angry that he was ruining his appetite for the delicious spaghetti that you were cooking.  


4) Be a Good Role Model.  If you forbid your child from grazing, but then you graze yourself, you will only make him more determined to eat whenever he wants.  Be a good role model and avoid grazing yourself.  You may even find that you shed a few pounds.


5) Feed Your Child Snacks, But Not Snack Food.  Food manufacturers would have you believe that junky snack foods like granola bars, crackers, cookies, or candy are the only foods you can feed your child between meals.  Don't fall for it.  You can feed your child fruit, vegetables and dip, 100% whole wheat bread and cheese, or other healthy foods for snacks.

Would you like a simple, easy-to-follow program that will teach your child to love healthy food? See my new book Teach Your Child to Love Healthy Food on amazon.com.

Here are some related articles:

Snacks -- A Good Thing
Hunger Makes Food Tasty
Vegetables and Dip: Tasty and Fun for Kids 

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Super-Sizing Healthy Food Makes Kids Eat More of It

By Julia Moravcsik, PhD, author of Teach Your Child to Love Healthy Food

Children tend to eat more of a food if they see more of it on their plates.  This "super-sizing" has been seen as a bad thing.  Fast food restaurants have been blamed for providing huge portions, which cause people to eat more unhealthy food.

But what if we could turn "super-sizing" on its head?  What if we could help our children eat more of a healthy food by super-sizing it?

A recent study found that serving children double portions of fruits and vegetables made them eat 37% more vegetables and a whopping 70% more fruit!

Give Your Child Super-Sizes of Healthy Foods

If you are serving vegetables, fruit, or other healthy foods for dinner, try giving your child a big, adult-sized portion.  You may be surprised that she focuses on eating this big portion, rather than the other less healthy items on her plate.

This Technique Only Works If Your Child Already Likes the Food

If your child hates spinach, and sees a huge glob of it on her plate, she will not eat more.  If anything, she may be repelled by the large pile that takes up half her plate.

Start by teaching your child to like the food by using these techniques.  Once your child likes the food (or at least thinks it's ok), then give her larger portions of it.

Give Your Child Less of the Main Dish and More Fruits and Vegetables


Another study has found that giving children less of a main dish, like macaroni and cheese, made children eat more of the healthy fruits and vegetables that accompanied it.  Give your child a healthy main dish, but make sure it's a child-sized portion. You don't want your child filling up on the main dish and leaving the extra healthy fruits and vegetables untouched.

Doesn't Serving Big Portions of Fruits and Vegetables Waste Food?

Frugal or environmentally conscious parents might object that giving your child big portions may waste food.  Although your child will eat more of the food if the portions are big, she may also leave more on her plate than she would if she were served a child-sized portion.

You can finish off your child's extra food yourself.  Your child will see you eating it and will be even more convinced that the food is tasty because Dad or Mom is eating it with such enthusiasm. 

Would you like a simple, easy-to-follow program that will teach your child to love healthy food? See my new book Teach Your Child to Love Healthy Food on amazon.com.

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Just Say No to the Kid's Menu

By Julia Moravcsik, PhD, author of Teach Your Child to Love Healthy Food

It happens every time.  You sit down with your family at a restaurant and the server gives your child a children's menu -- full of games, puzzles, and...yes...junk food!

As unhealthy as many restaurants are, the least healthy food is reserved for the children.  Hamburgers, fries, hot dogs, soda, and loads of sweets.  Our growing children, who need a greater percentage of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients to thrive, are served a lower concentration of these valuable chemicals than we, the parents, are!

Food on Children's Menus is High in Fat

The food on children's menus averages almost 50% fat.  Ironically, fast food children's menus have a slightly lower percentage of fat than sit down restaurants.  But both are loaded with fat.

Some fats are fine, and even healthy for children.  Olive oil, nuts, and seeds are healthy fats.  The fat in children's menus, however, comes mostly from saturated fats (meats, butterfat) or oil from deep frying (which can cause cancer by producing dangerous acrylamides and other oxidation products).

Food on Children's Menus is Repetitive

No matter how exotic and exciting a restaurant is, the children's menu has the same tired set of options.  Hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, and macaroni & cheese.

If you wanted to teach your child her multiplication tables, you wouldn't have her study the "two times" equations after she had already learned them.  If you want to teach your child to like a wide variety of healthy foods, you shouldn't keep teaching her the "hamburger" lesson over and over again.  She isn't learning a thing about the taste of new foods.  And giving your child the same foods over and over again can make her into a picky eater.

Food on Children's Menus is Overly Sweet

Children's menus usually come with soda or dessert.  What calories aren't taken up by fat are taken up by sugar!

Food on Children's Menus Have Very Little Fruits, Vegetables, or Other Healthy Foods

Your child can easily eat half her daily calories in one kid's meal without eating a single fruit, vegetable, or other healthy food.   Restaurant owners know that most children haven't learned to like fruits and vegetables, so they omit them from the kid's menu.

Alternatives to the Children's Menu

1. Tell your child that kid's menus are for babies.  Every child wants to be a big kid.  When the server hands your child a kid's menu, tell her that these menus are for babies and toddlers who haven't learned how to eat grown-up food yet.  She can enjoy the puzzles and the crayons, but can happily choose her food from the adult menu.

2. Split a meal with your child.  If the meals are too big, you and your child can decide on a meal that you both like and then split it.  Ask the server for a plate for your child.

3. Eat family style.  Order a few dishes and then allow everyone to take what they want from the dishes.  Your server can bring plates for all of you. 

4. Take food home.  Let your child order a meal off the grown-up menu, and then take the remainder home.  She can enjoy another serving a few days later, which will help her become even more familiar with the dish.

Would you like a simple, easy-to-follow program that will teach your child to love healthy food? See my new book Teach Your Child to Love Healthy Food on amazon.com.

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5 Little-Known Ways to Help Your Overweight Child Lose Weight

By Julia Moravcsik, PhD, author of Teach Your Child to Love Healthy Food

Obesity in children has been increasing by leaps and bounds in the past few decades.  1/3 of American children are now overweight or obese. 1/4 of British children are overweight or obese. 

Policymakers tell parents to feed their children less and get them to exercise more.  This advice is accurate, but leaves many parents shaking their heads and saying "But how exactly do I get my child to eat less and exercise more?"

Some well-meaning parents put their overweight children on a diet.  But forcing an overweight child to go hungry will backfire.  Overweight children often have strong instincts protecting them from famine.  Triggering a "famine" by forcing them to diet can make them crave food -- especially high calorie food -- even more.  Their brains are now on alert because they have experienced the threat of starvation, and try to protect the children by making them put on more fat stores by eating lots of high calorie food.

The only permanent solution to obesity is to teach your overweight child to like healthy, low calorie foods that don't cause obesity.

Here are 5 little-known tips to help your child make the transition to liking healthy foods.

Tip 1: Stop All Junk Food Right Away

Children (and lab animals!) who are given junk food will inevitably choose the junk food over healthy food.  Overweight children are especially susceptible to this.  If junk food is removed, children (and animals) will actually go hungry for days before eating the healthy food.

Your child has little or no chance of learning to like healthy food if he is also eating junk food.  The healthy food simply won't taste good.

Stop buying sweets, chips, fast food, and processed food.  Your child will complain for a while, but in a month or two he will adjust to his new diet and like it just as well as he liked the junk food.

Tip 2: Give Your Child 5 Servings of Vegetables Per Day


Vegetables are the lowest in calorie density of all foods.  Make sure your child gets 5 servings of vegetables a day.  Give him vegetables for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.  And make sure they taste good.  You can search for highly-rated recipes online.

Tip 3: Only Give Your Child Milk, Water, and Herb Teas to Drink

Your child's brain does something astounding when your child drinks.  It assumes that all liquid is water!  This means that your child's brain does not register calories in liquids! 

If your child drinks 200 calories per day in soda, it will not decrease his appetite.  He will eat as much as if he didn't drink the soda.

This means that he will be taking in 200 extra calories a day!!

Scientists have found that soda is one of the biggest predictors of childhood obesity.

Only give your child milk, water, or unsweetened no-calorie drinks like tea.  Your child's brain does recognize the calories in milk, perhaps because it is a substance that humans have always drunk.  Sugar-sweetened beverages are simply too new in our evolutionary history.


Tip 4: Don't Give Your Young Child Choices Around Food

Even a normal weight child will make poor food choices.  Overweight children, however, are victims of their brains, which are compelling them to eat large amounts of high calorie food. 

Don't let your child browse in the kitchen.  Feed him the same food that you feed the other members of the family. 

You may experience a month or so of rebellion because your child is used to demanding food at the grocery store or browsing through the refrigerator when he’s at home.  If you allow no exceptions, however, your child will accept the new rules within a month or two. 

Once your child is a teenager, you’ll need to teach him to make wise decisions around food.  At this point, give him the responsibility of making food decisions for himself and the family.  Allow him to choose the menu for the family dinner, as long as the foods are healthy.  Teach him to cook quick, healthy meals full of whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.

Tip 5: Feed your child a variety of foods over the long term, but limit variety each day.

Human beings eat more food if there are a variety of dishes spread before them.  You probably notice that you eat a lot of food at a buffet, where you can sample many tasty items.

You'll want to teach your child to like many different varieties of healthy foods, so you'll want to give him many different dishes in the long term.  But limit the number of foods he eats for meals to two or three.

Would you like a simple, easy-to-follow program that will teach your child to love healthy food? See my new book Teach Your Child to Love Healthy Food on amazon.com.

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Is My Child Too Thin? He May Just Look Thin Compared to Today's Kids

Children Are Getting Fatter

By Julia Moravcsik, PhD, author of Teach Your Child to Love Healthy Food

A recent study found that kindergarteners today are much heavier than they were in the 1970s and 1980s.

There are more obese children and fewer thin children.  The average-weight children are fatter than they used to be.

What Seems Normal Is Really Too Fat

One consequence of this is that parents who have a healthy weight child may think that their child is too thin.  We all have a natural tendency to think that what we see as average is good.  Since the average weight has gone up, a child who was average 10, 20, or 50 years ago may be seen as too thin today.   Adults around him may try to fatten him up by pressuring him to eat more.

Look at Children in Old Movies and TV Shows

A fun way to notice your own bias is to look at movies and TV shows from the 1940s or 1050s, when people were of a healthier weight.

Really look at the children in these shows.  These children look very thin! But they aren't. This is the healthy weight of a normal child.

Your Child is Probably Not Too Thin

With rare exceptions, if you have a thin child, he is probably not unhealthy.  If your child eats healthy food, he is probably getting enough nutrients.

If your child is extremely thin, has lost weight recently, or you think he may have a feeding or eating disorder, check with your doctor. 

Don't Feed Thin Children Junk Food to Fatten Them Up

Thin children who eat junk food have a double whammy -- they aren't getting as many calories AND those calories don't contain enough vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and other healthy chemicals.  Stick to a healthy diet, filled with whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and other healthy foods.

Ignore Weight Charts for Your Thin Child

Weight charts are based on current statistics.  That means that as children get fatter, what is considered "underweight" will get higher and higher.  If your child is in the 10th percentile for today, he may have been average if he had been born 50 years ago.

The only reason to look at weight charts is to make sure that your child isn't losing percentile points. If he is in the 5th percentile and has been there for years, there is no reason to worry.

Would you like a simple, easy-to-follow program that will teach your child to love healthy food? See my new book Teach Your Child to Love Healthy Food on amazon.com.

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Does Banning Sugar and Junk Food Make Kids Want It More?

By Julia Moravcsik, PhD, author of Teach Your Child to Love Healthy Food

The most effective way to teach your child to love healthy food is also the simplest -- Give your child healthy food and don't give her junk food.  Children have an instinct to like food that they're used to.  They will learn to like healthy food because it's familiar.  And they won't like junk food as much because they aren't used to it.

Unfortunately, there is another instinct that children have that makes banning junk food difficult.  Children have a perverse desire to like things that are banned.  They become curious and want the forbidden fruit.

If you forbid junk food and sweets it may make your child want them even more. 

What can a parent do to get out of this dilemma?

Don't Keep Junk Food in the House

If you keep junk food in the house, but don't let your child have any, it will make her want the food even more.  She will see the package of Milky Ways in the top cupboard but she won't be able to get at them.  Her desire for the forbidden Milky Ways will grow and grow.  If she finally gets a chance to eat them, she will stuff herself until she is sick.

Scientists have found that showing children a food -- but not letting them have it -- makes them want it more.  They will work harder to get the food. 

It's Easier to Have No Junk Food in the House Than to Have It Occasionally

If your child knows that the top cupboard occasionally has cookies in it, every time she looks at the top cupboard she will think about cookies.  It's actually easier to make your house a no-junk-food zone than to cut down on the junk food.  Your child simply won't think about sweets and junk food when she's at home. 

Don't Eat Junk Food in Front of Your Child

If your child sees you eating doughnuts, but she can't have any, she will really want them.  It will kick off her instinct to like forbidden fruit and it will also kick off her instinct to eat what someone else is eating.

If you are determined to raise a child who likes healthy food, you'll need to eat the same healthy food yourself.  Change begins with the parent.  If you have a weakness for rocky road ice cream, hide it in the back of the freezer and eat it after your child goes to bed.

Have a Casual Attitude Towards Junk Food Outside the Home

We live in a junk food culture, and when your child goes to friends' houses, buffets, or parties, she will be inundated with junk food.

Let your child occasionally eat junk food when she is at somebody else's home.  If you forbid your child to eat birthday cake at a party, you will make it into forbidden fruit.  She will also feel like an outsider.

Convey the attitude that junk food and sweets are simply not something that your family buys and brings into the house.  Give the impression that your family simply isn't interested in junk food.

Your No-Junk-Food Child Might DESIRE Junk Food More, But Not LIKE It More


If your child rarely gets sweets or junk food, she may seem to like them more because she gets excited when there are brownies or cupcakes at a party.  Her friends are more casual about it because they eat desserts every day.

Don't mistake this excitement for actually liking the dessert more.  Since she only has it rarely, even if she doesn't really like it, she will feel cheated if she doesn't grab it when it's there.


A Sneaky Trick You Can Use
You can take advantage of your child's instinct to be interested in things that are forbidden.  You can lure your child into trying turnips, for example, by eating them in front of her and saying "No, these are only for me.  You can't have any."  She will immediately beg for a turnip.  After protesting for a while, you can say "Well, ok." and give her some.

Would you like a simple, easy-to-follow program that will teach your child to love healthy food? See my new book Teach Your Child to Love Healthy Food on amazon.com.

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Use Tasty or Yucky Facial Expressions to Get Your Child to Like Healthy Foods

Yummy Face

Yucky Face

By Julia Moravcsik, PhD, author of Teach Your Child to Love Healthy Food

Children learn which kinds of food to eat by observing their parents.  This is an ancient instinct.  In prehistoric times, there were many wild plants that were poisonous. If a child simply ate whatever he found growing on the ground, he would die of poisoning.  Children look to adults to find out if a food is edible and tasty or yucky and poisonous.

You may have discovered this already.  If Uncle Jim comes to dinner and refuses to eat his asparagus, this attitude can spread like a cold virus throughout your family.  Soon all your children are leaving piles of uneaten asparagus on their plates. 

Children Look at Yucky and Yummy Facial Expressions

One way children tell whether an adult likes a food or not is to look at his facial expression.  If the adult is relishing his food with a blissful expression, it is probably tasty.  If the adult has his upper lip and nose curled up in an expression of disgust, it is probably repulsive.

A recent study found that young children liked a food better if it was being eaten by someone who had an "mmm...good" smile, and disliked a food if it was being eaten by someone who had a "yucky" disgusted expression. 

A Trick to Getting Your Child to Like Healthy Foods

When your child is eating a healthy food, eat the same food yourself and make a "yummy" expression.  Children can see through fake expressions, so really try to enjoy the food yourself and let a natural "yum" expression come to your face.  You can say something like "Mmm...this asparagus is really good." to emphasize it and to get your child to look at your face.

Remember, if your child catches on, this technique will backfire.  If he thinks he's being manipulated into eating a healthy food, he will think that it's not tasty enough to eat for its own merits.  So use this technique sparingly, and try to be genuine in your own appreciation.

A Trick to Getting Your Child NOT to Like Unhealthy Foods

If your child is eating a food that isn't healthy, you can express your opinion by putting on a yucky expression while he's eating it.

Try to be genuine here as well.  It may not be difficult, given the disgusting junk that food manufacturers make for children!  When my son poured his Halloween candy out on the counter, there were chewy eyeballs and "fruit" flavored chalky candies that made me cringe with disgust just looking at them!  I made a few comments about how disgusting they were and he never ate them.

Of course you'll want to respect your child while you're doing this.  Sitting in front of a poor kid who's eating an ice cream cone and flashing disgusted faces isn't polite or kind!  But occasionally, if there is an unhealthy food that really is pretty disgusting, feel free to let your opinion express itself on your face!

Be Careful of Picky Eater Friends

Children are very influenced by their friends. If your child eats lunch with a friend who hates vegetables, he may start hating them too.

Would you like a simple, easy-to-follow program that will teach your child to love healthy food? See my new book Teach Your Child to Love Healthy Food on amazon.com.

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